What is the price of history?

Mark Greathouse

(7/2020) It might be rather glib to simply say history is ‘priceless.’

We’ve been treated lately to daily television images of statues around the nation being spray painted, torn down, burned, sunk in lakes, decapitated, and more. Beyond the physical cost of these memorials which typically represent tens of thousands of dollars for artists, bronze castings, granite pedestals, and any necessary maintenance, there is what I call the symbolic cost.

One of my favorite quotes as concerns living our lives to the fullest is from the philosopher George Santayana, "Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it."

Let’s make a connection here: rioting, looting, destruction of property, tearing down statues, and history are inextricably linked. History represents the story of the evolution of cultures, it’s a life narrative. It is replete with the good, the bad, and the ugly; but once experienced it exists for time immemorial. Learning our history ostensibly keeps us from repeating the bad stuff like slavery. The experiences of a culture become its history. It can never be erased, despite attempts to destroy physical representations.

Recall Ray Bradbury’s film Fahrenheit 451 in which a dystopian society burns all books? The book burning spawns a secret faction that memorizes books to preserve their messages. Remember the finale of Planet of the Apes whereby the Statue of Liberty is found half-buried in the sandy beach? Let us not forget Newspeak in George Orwell’s epic novel 1984 in which language is employed so as to limit freedom of thought and thereby control the people. As a final example of attempts at history erasure, the Soviet dictator Josef Stalin had the faces of people he disagreed with erased from photographs (he’d have loved photoshop!). Of course, Stalin eliminated his physically enemies, too. What’s the answer? Erase history? Alter history? Preserve history? Learn from history?

We live in an American culture in which ‘public’ school curricula over the past several decades have nearly eliminated and certainly recast the narrative of history. Having taught at a local college, served on a school board, and schooled two sons, I’ve seen the abridged treatment of history first hand. Curricula are now replete with a debased and demeaned version of U.S. history featuring leftist ideological messaging. Thus, most of the people tearing down statues are products of the schools and mostly have no idea as to the historical significance of what they are attempting to destroy. They’re essentially under-educated. It’s not that they’re morons or stupid, they simply haven’t a clue. They’re products of a world as described by the 6th century BC Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu, "Therefore the sage, in the exercise of his government, empties their minds, fills their bellies, weakens their wills, and strengthens their bones." The sage wants no free thought, just strong working bodies to do his bidding.

This brings us to the beautiful historical representations that are the monuments across the nearby Gettysburg battlefields. Thus far, they’ve been untouched by the anarchy fomenting in our major cities. The U.S. National Park Service states that it "preserves, protects, and interprets one of the best marked battlefields in the world." There are 1,325 monuments memorializing the men who fought and died during the Battle of Gettysburg: Union and Confederate. Human beings all. We can never take them for granted. Their sacrifice is a priceless testament to our nation’s history.

An anarchical organization called Antifa under the guise of ‘Left Behind USA’ threatens to burn American flags at the Gettysburg National Cemetery on the afternoon of July 4. (It’s said they’re even giving young children small flags to burn.) Some pooh-pooh the protest, but Antifa has been emboldened in the past few weeks, and our local law enforcement is taking the possibility seriously. Will Antifa turn their flag burning energies to destroying battlefield monuments? Possibly. Is the Antifa protest about removing history? No. Is it about the memory of a heinously murdered thug in Minneapolis? No. Is it about fomenting violence and divisiveness in our nation? Absolutely yes. To what end? They can’t even tell you.

Per the President’s June 26 Executive Order, protections for the monuments on the Gettysburg National Military Park are clarified. The E.O. states, "The desire of the Congress to protect Federal property is clearly reflected in section 1361 of title 18, United States Code, which authorizes a penalty of up to 10 years’ imprisonment for the willful injury of Federal property. More recently, under the Veterans’ Memorial Preservation and Recognition Act of 2003, section 1369 of title 18, United States Code, the Congress punished with the same penalties the destruction of Federal and in some cases State-maintained monuments that honor military veterans. Other criminal statutes, such as the Travel Act, section 1952 of title 18, United States Code, permit prosecutions of arson damaging monuments, memorials, and statues on State grounds in some cases. Civil statutes like the Public System Resource Protection Act, section 100722 of title 54, United States Code, also hold those who destroy certain Federal property accountable for their offenses. The Federal Government will not tolerate violations of these and other laws."

Of course, the law only has effect if the police enforce it and the vandals are arrested and prosecuted to the full extent of the law. We’ve seen too many spineless big-city politicians across the nation ordering police to back off and allow the anarchists disguised as protestors to ‘blow off steam.’ We must not have such behavior repeated in Gettysburg or anywhere else in our nation.

Various militia groups and individual citizens are positioning to support law enforcement personnel in protecting the Gettysburg National Military Park from protestors. Armed or otherwise threatening stances by private citizens, while well-intended, are arguably not the answer. We pray no violence ensues. Violence never ends well. Is that a price we must pay?

And we are left with asking ourselves, ‘What is the price of history?’ It’s priceless.

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